Rebel Stylist GR

As the new year approaches, it’s time for a fresh start. If your fresh start includes chopping all your hair off, keep reading. Short hair is exceptionally freeing and an awesome way to add some sass to your personal style. However, if you’re used to wearing your hair long, there can be a learning curve to styling your first short crop. Keep these four things in mind while you’re pinteresting to make sure you end up with a look you’ll love.

1. Daily Maintenance

When you first chop your hair off, one of the things you’ll notice is that you end up styling your hair nearly every day. Actually, you kinda have to. The thing I miss most about having long hair is the ponytail. I miss having a near-instant way to get my hair out of my face and up off of my neck. I miss the messy bun on days when my hair just won’t cooperate. With pixie cuts, there isn’t exactly a shortcut on days when your hair just doesn’t want to do the thing. You will find that you will want to do something with your hair every day. The first couple of weeks after the chop, give yourself grace. This is the learning period. You’ve gotta figure out everything from the way to hold your hands when you apply product to how often to wash your hair and what the heck to do with the blow dryer. During your learning period, you’re gonna spend more time than you want to on your hair. But, suddenly, everything will click into place. 20 minutes in front of the mirror magically will become 5. The number of good hair days skyrockets and the number of bad hair days plummets. After you’re comfortable styling the pixie, it truly becomes a low-maintenance look.

2. Frequency of Trips to the Salon

Hair Maintenance refers to two different things: 1. How much time you spend on your hair day-to-day (see above), and 2. how frequently you return to the salon for trims and shaping. The #1 factor determining how often you’re in the salon is how quickly your hair grows. The faster your hair grows, the more maintenance your hair will require. On average, hair grows about half an inch per month. With that in mind, here is a standard haircutting schedule I recommend:

To keep a bald fade crisp or an undercut shaved: every 3 weeks

To maintain a pixie with some length in the sides and back: every 4 weeks

For a more lived-in look: every 6 weeks

In order to grow out a pixie cut: every 8-12 weeks

3. Face Shape

There are a lot of different shapes that short crops can take, and not every cut looks good on every person. Firstly, keep in mind whether you want to look more masculine or feminine. Masculine shapes tend to be square or rectangular while feminine shapes tend to be round or triangular. When looking for the cut that’s right for you, keep in mind what your natural face shape looks like. If you can’t figure it out, ask your hairdresser (we literally got quizzed on it in beauty school)! If you have naturally very round features, but your goal is to look masculine, pick a cut with a strong, rectangular shape. Similarly, if you have traditionally masculine features but are looking to soften your look, try something that gives you roundness through the crown.

4. Hair Texture

When you do your research for your short haircut, think long and hard about how thick your hair is and whether or not it has any wave or curl in it. Do your best to find styles that work on hair texture like yours. However, it’s important to remember that hairstylists who post their work online are always looking to put their best foot forward. For this reason, many of the pictures you find will feature a style that uses a significant amount of product, blow drier and iron work. Sometimes, this makes it hard to tell what the hair’s true texture is. Finding minimum of three inspiration pictures to show your stylist is a great idea, so that they can guide you towards a style that will work best with your natural texture and growth patterns. Don’t fight the hair; the hair will win. Work with your hairstylist to pick something you won’t have to battle every morning to look good.

Congratulations on making it through this year. Treat yourself to some pampering and enjoy all the looks you get to serve up this new year!